Cam Cole: Playoff implications on the line when Lions host Eskimos

B.C. Lions head coach Wally Buono talks to Ryan Phillips (21) during the first half of CFL action against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Winnipeg Saturday, October 8, 2016.John Woods / THE CANADIAN PRESS

That is how the Canadian Football League breaks down in 2016. Four teams of mortals in the East, four in the West, and the Calgary Stampeders in a class by themselves.

It is understood by all that the only team capable of beating the Stamps is the Stamps.

But such miracles have been known to happen — Wally Buono can attest to it having happened to his teams on more than one occasion — and so the mortals press on, hoping against hope to be the ones across the line of scrimmage on Judgment Day, just in case the prohibitive favourites implode.

Which brings us to Saturday afternoon in the semi-friendly confines of BC Place Stadium, where Buono’s 9-6 B.C. Lions and the 8-7 Edmonton Eskimos engage in what amounts to a playoff game — only three weeks in advance of the actual post-season.

“Yes, we blew an opportunity to secure a home playoff game. But that’s still out there.”

The winner, especially if it’s the Eskimos, will then own all the pertinent tiebreakers against both B.C. and Winnipeg, and will have an excellent chance of playing host to the West semifinal.

The loser, again especially if it’s the Eskimos, more than likely will be playing a crossover East semifinal in either Hamilton or Ottawa.

Neither case is quite as cut and dried for the Lions, whose fortunes could yet go either way with a win or a loss.

“Yes, we blew an opportunity to secure a home playoff game,” said Buono, whose Lions threw away back-to-back games against Winnipeg the last two weeks. “But that’s still out there.”

Here is where a cynic might point out a solid case to be made for tanking, in order to take an arguably easier path to the Grey Cup, through Hamilton and Ottawa, or vice versa.

But tanking doesn’t come naturally to football. Too much pain is involved in the course of a game to endure it for nothing.

So the more likely scenario is that the defending Grey Cup champion Eskimos will be getting the Lions’ full attention.

It’s a different Edmonton club than the Chris Jones-coached outfit that entered this same week a year ago in the midst of an eight-game regular season winning streak, beat the Lions 26-23 in overtime, and finished up 17-3 including the Grey Cup win.

But the Eskimos, who stopped a three-game losing streak with a comeback win over the Lions on September 23, have now won three in a row, and are starting to get some of that familiar look back. Mike Reilly is on pace for a 6,000-yard passing season, and his prime receivers Adarius Bowman and Derel Walker are 1-2 in the league in receiving yards.

After a balky 5-7 start under Jason Maas, they’ve righted the ship.

“I think Mike (Reilly) and I hit it off from day one,” said Maas, who took the Edmonton job after coaching Henry Burris to an MVP season a year ago in Ottawa.

“You could tell right away what type of leader and person he is. I love coaching him. I think the players love playing for him, and he gives us a shot to win every week. That’s all you can ask from your quarterback.”

The Lions know they’ve got their hands full.

Edmonton Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly passes the ball during first half CFL action against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, in Regina on Sunday, September 18, 2016.Mark Taylor /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

“They’ve still got a lot of good players over there,” said linebacker Solomon Elimimian. “I know some guys left (to Saskatchewan with Smith). It took time. Obviously it’s a different offensive scheme, but one thing I see comparing the beginning of the season to now, their defence has really come on. (Former Lions head coach) Mike Benevides has done a great job.

“And Reilly’s still Reilly. He’s a tough quarterback with a linebacker mentality.”

“He doesn’t shy away from anybody,” said the greybeard of the B.C. defensive backfield, Ryan Phillips. “When he’s in the driver’s seat making plays, in my opinion he’s the best in the league. His competitiveness in the fourth quarter definitely sets him apart from the rest.”

At this point, Travis Lulay’s former backup with the Lions is in MVP form.

“When you’re replacing an entire staff and some of your key starters, you feel like you’re starting over again but at the same time trying to hold onto what got you success the years before,” Reilly said Friday.

“I think we’ve been able to lean on some of the veteran leadership in the locker-room and say, ‘OK, a championship isn’t won in a week or a month.’ You’ve got to get into the playoffs and be playing good football in October and November.

“We’ve been playing big games for a couple of weeks now because of what we didn’t accomplish early in the season.”

They had their rocky times. The Lions are having theirs now.

“Every team in the CFL, other than Calgary, has gone through this,” Buono said. “The Eskimos went through this when we played them. They’d lost three in a row, and I guarantee they were in the same state of mind as we are.”

But it’s not, Buono argued, the exact wrong time of year to be in a funk.

“Can I tell you when the wrong time of the year is?” he said. “When it’s the final. That’s why they call it the final. If you have an off-day that day, then it’s the wrong time.”

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